Jems Monthly Blog Hop May

Yey! Welcome to a new monthly blog hop by our team of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. You might have hopped here from Sam's blog - in which case - Hello! I'm Kylie!

This month's theme is 'Retiring Products'. Earlier this month when the retirement list was published (the list of all the stamps and accessories that won't be in the next catalogue) I piled up all my stamps that will retire and I pulled out a few that I'm quite attached to - I want to get some more use out of them before deciding whether or not to sell them on!

Flowering Flourishes was one such stamp set. I love this set because it creates the perfect, simple but very effective backgrounds. Add a sentiment and you have a gorgeous card in minutes! It's a favourite of mine for wedding cards and invitations too. Today I want to show you three cards using Flowering Flourishes to create different backgrounds.

Please note this stamp set has already sold out in all formats - however I will be reluctantly parting with mine in my preloved stamp sale on 5th June - please see my events page for details!

The first card is simply stamped in basic grey and white craft ink on a basic grey card base. The sentiment is from another retiring stamp set 'Perfect Pennants' stamped in white craft ink. I've added some butterflies which I had punched from scraps of card that I had practised my stamping on! The addition of Rhinestones gives it an elegant finish!

For my second card I have heat embossed the background with clear embossing powder then sponged over the top with Lost Lagoon ink (One of the retiring 2014-16 in-colours) and more stamping over the top with Lost Lagoon and another Perfect Pennants sentiment.

Another heat embossed card for number three - this time gold embossing powder over Blackberry Bliss (this colour I'll miss a lot!) which I think looks quite classy and luxurious!

Hopefully someone I know will buy it off me so I can borrow it back occasionally! Haha.

Now it's time to click the NEXT BLOG button below to visit Julie's blog - the next one in the Jems Blog Hop, but I hope to see you back here soon!

List of demonstrators participating in the Jems Blog Hop this month:

Sharon Glynn
Sarah-Jane Rae
Julie Dix
Sarah Lavelle
Amanda Bates
Karyn Davies
Julie Kettlewell
Allie Jolliffe
Samantha Webster
Samantha Carlton
Kylie Henshaw - YOU ARE HERE
Julie Wade
Sarah Lindsay
Karen Watts
Gill Arnold
Yvonne Hunt
Kate Martin
Tracy Hill
Lucy Brown

Zoo babies is gone!

I came to write a little post about a couple of baby cards I made recently with the Zoo Babies stamp set and I've just checked and it's already sold out! Sorry. I still haven't decided if I can part with my set yet but it might be added to my stock of retired products in my preloved stamp sale on 5th June!

Anyway, hope you like these - they also feature a retired stamp set called Celebrate Baby which will be in my sale) and uses up some old papers.

I made two because I didn't know the sex of the baby and I wanted to get organised in advance (people who know me will know this really isn't normal for me!!)

I'll be back on Saturday morning with a special Blog Hop post - so if you've got a quiet half an hour over the weekend you'll need to grab a cup of tea and read all the linked posts from my team of demonstrators! See you then!